Thin-film transistors (TFT) are a form of field effect transistors made by depositing thin films of semiconductor material over a substrate. One application for TFTs is TFT liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD). TFT-LCDs are used for televisions, computers, mobile phones, handheld devices and projectors.
Previously, TFTs were fabricated with a channel layer made of amorphous silicon, microcrystalline silicon or polysilicon. More recently, TFT with a ZnO-based channel layer have been shown to exhibit superior performance, simpler fabrication complexity, better transparency, lower light sensitivity and lower light degradation. However, manufacturing the ZnO-based channel layer may require high temperature and vacuum processing which may be costly. Alternatively the ZnO-based channel layer may be made using nanotubes, nanowires or nanorods of ZnO, but this may require the alignment of the nanotubes, nanowires or nanorods which may be difficult and/or costly.